“ಸೋರುತಿಹುದು ಮನೆಯ ಮಾಳಿಗಿ, ಅಜ್ಞಾನದಿಂದ… ಸೋರುತಿಹುದು ಮನೆಯ ಮಾಳಿಗಿ!” ಸಂತ ಶಿಶುನಾಳ ಶರೀಫ This is a Kannada folk song written by Santa Shishunala Sharifa in the mid 19th century when India experienced an epidemic of Bubonic plague. In the song, he advises people to be sensible about the disease. He shares insights on…
View More Throwing Scientific Temper out of the window
Learning by being present: It was during June of 1999 that I was approached by a parent to tutor her son for grade 10 Maths. This was purely thanks to the marketing efforts of my beloved mother about my score of 99/100 in my 10th exams. My ever-zealous mother used…
View More How Arithmetic Progression shaped my journey as a teacher
Tickling the brain: I recently read this book – What if the Earth stopped spinning and 24 other mysteries by Roopa Pai. I am currently reading Imperial Earth by Arthur C Clarke. Both these books have evoked a fresh sense of intrigue in me. My curiosity is heightened beyond its…
View More Nurturing curiosity through questions
Introduction Over the last two decades, the internet has revolutionised the way in which we access and consume information. What would take weeks of research in libraries is now available at the click of a button within microseconds. No doubt this kind of access has driven progress in orders of…
View More The vicious effect of clickbait information
My long-standing love story with reading: Ever since my childhood, I have been besotted with reading. It is the only consistent habit that has stayed with me over the last four decades of my life. “Why are you always reading story books? Read your schoolbooks!” This was my mother’s common…
View More 8 ways in which the reading habit has enriched my life
Introduction When people ask me what’s the value of learning Mathematics if you are not going to apply in your job, I say Mathematics is all around you. If you understand Mathematics you can appreciate how nature works, how the celestial bodies work, and how everything we have created so…
View More NumberNagar® Dialogue Series – On Getting Command in Mathematics
Introduction English is as good as my native language and I’m fluent in it. However, I was not always like this. My “mother-tongue” is Hindi. So, when I started getting into debates, elocution, and speeches during my school days, I had to translate the sentences from Hindi to English, many…
View More NumberNagar® Dialogue Series – On Bringing Fluency in Spoken English in Children
Introduction Creativity is a frequently discussed topic. We see a lot of creative people around us, musicians, writers, artists, poets, designers, photographers, journalists, and many such people, we generally associate creativity with. What if, the purview of creativity is much wider than these personas? What if creativity plays a major…
View More NumberNagar Dialogue Series – On Creativity in Children
Introduction As parents / teachers / facilitators, we are observing that the stress level in children is on the rise. At the same, time, we also observe that the energy level in children is going down. In the first part of the NumberNagar Dialogue Series, I talk to Sushma, who…
View More NumberNagar Dialogue Series – On Reducing Stress and Increasing Energy Level in Children
Preparation for the much-awaited event: We were pretty excited about the eclipse viewing event plans. As expected, the morning of 26 Dec 2019 was misty and cloudy. The eagerness to witness the annular solar eclipse was so high that I was willing to take a chance. The idea was to…
View More Glimpse of the Eclipse – a Meaningful Learning Experience – Part 2